70 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



his figure agrees tolerably well with mine ; Esper's, pi. xiii., fig. 

 2*, might also be rather referred here than to the ordinary querciis, 

 more particularly on account of its broad yellow margin, which 

 is the chief distinction separating spartii {=sicula) from quercus. 

 That B. spartii (=sicuia) is ^really distinct from quercus is certain 

 from their being bred from distinct larvae. The larva of B. spartii 

 (=sicuia) that I figure on the accompanying plate is, indeed, extra- 

 ordinarily similar to that of L. querents, but lacks the white, hook- 

 formed lateral stripes which the larva of L. quercus pos- 

 sesses, and this is the strongest proof of its specific distinctness ; 

 the larva is also darker than that of L. quercus, and its black-brown 

 sides are thickly clothed with fine grey hairs (my figure is made 

 from a very well blown example received from Herr Buringer). B. 

 spartii (=sicu/a) has the colour, size, and form of our querciis ; the 

 yellow line which runs through the forewings is very narrow, 

 straighter and not so arched, and is sharply separated from the 

 ground colour on both sides. The other principal difference is that 

 in the $ the white spot of the forewings is farther removed from 

 the yellow line in spartii {sicula) than in quercus; further, the 

 hindwings in spartii (sicula) have a broad, orange -yellow border. 

 The 2 is smaller than that of L. quercus, and the band on the fore- 

 wings much narrower. The whole ground colour is somewhat darker than 

 in 2 quercus. On the underside the two species are pretty much alike, 

 yet the white spot of the forewing of the S sicula shows through more 

 distinctly than does that of quercus. This species was brought by Dahl 

 from Sicily, and the original of my figure is from the collection of 

 Herr Buringer of Gunzenhausen." Freyer further quotes (loc. cit., p. 

 177) a letter from Treitschke, in which the latter says : "The larva 

 is not quite like the figure, the blown skin may have been damaged ; 

 it is much more fox-red than the figure, &c." Freyers only comment 

 is that " the larval skin from which the figure was made was in 

 a very good state of preservation/"' Treitschke's diagnosis (Die 

 Schmett., x., pt. i., p. 191) reads as follows : " Gasiropacha. Mas. 

 Alis brunneis ; anticis puncto medio albo, fascia subrecta flava, 

 posticis limbo fiavo. Fcemina : Alis dilutioribus, fascia media lim- 

 boque posticarum obsolete flavidis. Ochs., iii., p. 266, and iv., p. 58, 

 G. querciis var. f ; Hb., 173 and text p. 143, no. 2. spartii \; Hb., 224 



* This is a highly-coloured <r , with the transverse band extending con- 

 siderably towards the outer margin without reaching it, whilst in the hindwings 

 the band is almost typical, only just a little broad. It is, of course, the figure 

 on which the ab. roborts is partly founded (see antea, p. 65). It is remarkable 

 that Freyer makes a point of the broad yellow margin. One is almost inclined 

 to wonder whether some copies of Kspcr were differently coloured, although Ksper's 

 own description of the insect represented by pi. xiii., fig. 2, forbids the association 

 of it with var. sicula. 



t Ochsenheimer's variety is based on Hubner's figs. [73 and 224, the narrow- 

 banded ab. spartii, and Esper's pi. xiii., figs. 2—3 the wide-banded ab. roboris, 

 reference also being made to the original description of the latter form in " Bork. 

 Rhein. Mag.," p. 362, and to Schrank's description of roboris, "Faun. Boica," 

 ii., 1 Abth., p. 275. An incongruous mixture, having no connection with sicula!! 



I Hubner's fig. T73, 3 , is liis type of ab. spartii. a common aberration of 

 I. qunrus from Germany. The text at p. 143 describes this common German form. 

 Neither figure nor letterpress gives any suggestion whatever of var. sicula. 



